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Great to hear you're enjoying it; I thought you might. Haven't touched anything on the western path yet--I hope to get to that this weekend (if work decides to give me a break). I'm impressed, by the way, that you got to 300 dashes. I heard about that and just decided not to even attempt it because I know it will drive me insane if I'd try.

The shield dash is weird. I'm still unsure what the conditions are under which it activates. I think it's the most unreliable upgrade in the game.

I don't know, the gameplay never made me suspect that those stone slabs could be something like in Fez. I will be surprised if it turns out to be anything more meaningful than just a collectable with a small gameplay reward.

Just don't forget, you and I are Dragon's Dogma buddies!!! Please forgive me!

By the way, it has a little bit of classic Zelda going on in the sense that some paths through the environment are only really accessible after you've done some upgrading.

EDIT:

Heads up: According to the patch notes on the first, post-release patch, you can now speed up the respawn animation by holding A on the controller.

I don't think it is, though. I've been playing it for several hours and the combat does get really difficult at first, but the game gives you an interesting upgrade path for your different abilities and weapons that make things a lot more manageable down the road. The combat is demanding in terms of timing and accuracy but it also gives you the tools to do it, most of the time (it's not as tight as Dragon's Dogma, for sure). What I do think is a bit frustrating is how it can sometimes be really easy to dash off the side of a platform while in combat. On the flip side, the same rules apply to your enemies; I've seen plenty of enemies take a tumble off the platform while fighting me. There are some weird choices regarding how saves and respawns work but nothing that should dissuade you in any strong sense to pass up on this game.

What this game does really well, I think, is creating an interesting world that offers some great moments of discovery without rubbing it in your face. It paints a world that has a history and allows you to interpret what that history is but doesn't demand that you do, if that makes sense.

It has its flaws, some of which are downright glaring and silly, but a part of some of the criticism I've been reading says more about the preferences of the player than it does about the game.

Longer. They should be longer.

Just walking around Skyrim but also Civ V.

This will be the third time that I'm buying this game.

Editorial Jeff Gerstmann is best Jeff Gerstmann.

I don't like competitive multiplayer games; I never feel compelled to compete with people in games so 'winning the game' doesn't do much for me.